‘He has a Ph.D. in football, too:’ How Sean Desai’s unconventional path has led to success with the Eagles

Every Friday, Sean Desai puts his hand in the dirt and then motors through a defensive line drill with his players watching.

In his first year as Eagles defensive coordinator, Desai has formed a few rituals that help keep things loose as the build-up toward game day heightens. So, when the team breaks for individual drills during the final practice of the week, he’ll line up next to another Eagles staffer and see who can finish the circuit first.

Considering the 40-year-old has a stature more closely resembling Jake Elliott’s than Jordan Davis’, it’s a moment that provides equal parts competition and levity.

“We see him out there, just like this little guy around a bunch of D-linemen [toughing] it out,” Davis said. “It’s funny. It gets us pumped up, we all get juiced up.”

In his first season running the Eagles defense after an unconventional pathway into coaching, Desai has gotten off to an impressive start. The former Temple adjunct professor and assistant coach with a background in education inherited a group replacing several key contributors from last year and has gotten results even as injuries piled up in the secondary the last two months partly by drawing on his experiences.

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In the Eagles’ win against the Miami Dolphins last Sunday, Desai’s group held the No. 1 offense in the NFL to just 10 points and 12 first downs while missing three Week 1 starters in the defensive secondary.

He’s slow to take credit, but the performances, particularly against elite quarterbacks such as Tua Tagovailoa and Matthew Stafford, are an encouraging sign for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.

“I’m [just] on the sideline just trying to stay warm, you know what I’m saying?” Desai said earlier this week. “It’s those guys executing the calls and the plan that we’ve given them, and the coaches giving them those calls throughout the week and making them feel confident that they can go ahead and make plays, and they’re doing it.”

There’s a duality behind the results and how Desai’s personality factors into them. He often starts the week with intense, detail-oriented meetings with some defensive backs learning multiple positions in the game plan. That eventually gives way to a looser demeanor going into the weekend and a calm on the sideline during games, illustrated by the Friday practice routine and the whimsical clothes he often wears the day before the Eagles play.

“If you look at the shirts that he wears before games, it’s something that his kids pick out,” Eagles safety Sydney Brown said. “He comes into the meeting rooms before games, even on travel days, wearing some random shirt. It’s like, ‘What are you wearing?’ We’re talking Marvel, Spider-Man, X-Men, some sort of superhero every week.”

» READ MORE: How Temple helped shape new Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai

In over 30 years of coaching, Ed Foley hasn’t encountered someone quite like Desai.

The two overlapped for three seasons at Temple starting in 2008, when Foley coached the offensive line and tight ends while Desai was a graduate extern of academics.

Foley had seen a few grad assistants find time around their packed schedules to teach a physical education course back in the 1990s, but what Desai was doing was something entirely different: Finishing his doctorate in education administration and teaching a class in the department all while wearing multiple hats on a lean coaching staff.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Foley said. “When I first heard about it and found out he was actually working with professors and teaching, I was like, ‘How do you have time for all that?’ But he was a worker. He figured it out.”

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Desai earned his doctorate from Temple in 2008 and shifted his attention solely to coaching, forging a unique path into the profession. The son of Indian immigrants, his exposure to football outside of a backyard context didn’t come until he was a teenager. He had to convince his parents to let him play in high school and had to be even more persuasive after breaking his ankle his freshman season.

Desai’s lack of playing experience is far from limiting, though. If his quick rise through the coaching ranks isn’t enough of an indication, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni pointed to his football IQ being one of the main reasons the team hired him to replace Jonathan Gannon last offseason.

Eagles linebacker Nicholas Morrow said Desai’s tendency to predict the flow of games in the days leading into them can be eerie at times.

“He’s got a Ph.D. in football, too,” Eagles linebacker Nicholas Morrow said. “It’s just his anticipation for plays. We were playing the Rams and he was like, ‘Hey, look, they’re going to come out early and they’re going to have some stuff and they’re probably going to have some success, but after that, we’ll find a way to get on top of them.’ And sure enough, that’s what we did.”

Said Brown: “He’s a very strategic coordinator. I doubt a lot of us get to see a play-calling sheet, but if you did see his play-calling sheet, there’s like 50,000 notes on there. That’s just who he is, he’s a highly detailed guy.”

Foley noticed the breadth of Desai’s knowledge during a coaching clinic after Desai left Temple and was a member of the Chicago Bears staff under longtime NFL defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

Desai broke down the scheme that would eventually become en vogue in the NFL, and the ease in which he simplified things stood out to Foley.

“The coaching profession is not filled with a lot of high-academic types,” said Foley, now the special teams coordinator at Nebraska. “I think there’s a concept to having a high amount of knowledge, you can process a lot of things. ... But at the end of the day, you’re going to be judged by what the kids can perform on the field. So you have to translate that knowledge.

“Sometimes the really smart guys aren’t the best coaches. But he’s one of those really smart guys who is actually a really good teacher as well. He can relate to the kids and boil it down to what they can understand, which is the really critical part.”

For as many notes as Desai’s call sheet may contain, there’s still room for ideas.

Against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 5, Desai pivoted from his original game plan of putting undrafted rookie Eli Ricks and second-year undrafted corner Josh Jobe on Rams star receiver Cooper Kupp partially at the suggestion of Eagles cornerback Darius Slay. It required Slay to move into foreign territory as a slot cornerback on some plays, but it helped slow Kupp down after he started with five catches for 56 yards on the Rams’ opening drive.

That type of sideline communication is something Desai encourages. He said this past week that he wants the players to have “ownership” over the defense and the calls throughout the game — something he traces back to his years working toward his doctorate.

“I try to pride myself on my own background in terms of educational background and leadership, and it’s just something I believe in,” Desai said. “I think you have to be able to let guys play freely and within the structure of the defense, knowing when they can take their shots.”

Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham has played for six different coordinators during his tenure with the Eagles and said most coaches aren’t as open to player input as Desai is. Graham noted that Jim Schwartz, the team’s defensive coordinator from 2016-20, was a coach who would take suggestions from players like Desai does.

“He listens to us,” Graham said. “What we like, what we don’t like. While sometimes he might have to do certain things because of what he believes is going to happen, he’s definitely open to hearing us more instead of just saying, ‘This is the scheme, learn it, and just run what I call.’ Because you get those, too. But we’re the ones that are playing and he always wants to put us in [good] position.”

For as well-versed as Desai is in his scheme, Ricks said that Desai’s lack of experience playing football professionally actually makes him more approachable for a young player as well.

“He’s not the most intimidating character,” Ricks said. “He’s not some 6-foot-4 ex-player. But he also seems like a really humble guy to me. You can kind of tell humble people easily. And he helps out everybody, like he pays attention just as much to a practice squad player as he does with Slay.”

» READ MORE: Eagles learning about rookie cornerback Eli Ricks, on the field and off

Even though part of Desai’s appeal to the Eagles in the offseason was the continuity he could offer from Gannon’s scheme, there have been some notable differences.

The Eagles rank No. 1 in defensive efficiency against the run this season, according to FTN Fantasy, which tracks defense-adjusted value over average, compared to 19th last season. They’re 17th against the pass after being first last season, although it’s important to note the number of injuries the secondary has sustained when evaluating the drop-off against the pass.

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Injuries to Avonte Maddox and Zech McPhearson left the Eagles without an answer at slot cornerback for part of the season, and a revolving door of safety injuries left them scrambling there as well.

Ricks has been part of a group of young defensive backs thrust into playing time through seven games. The 22-year-old cornerback from Alabama and LSU didn’t play in the slot at all in college, but said Desai has been working with him all season on cross-training.

“He explains every position in depth in our defensive meetings,” Ricks said. “And he’s always asking me, like even today at practice, he’s asking, ‘Are you good with everything? Good with the game plan we got this weekend?’ He’s always asking us questions. All of the other coaches as well, he’s always preaching to them to make sure they’re helping us out and staying after with them. I’m about to stay after today and watch some extra clips.”

Ricks said after the Eagles’ first meeting with the Washington Commanders that Desai’s sideline demeanor stood out to him. The defense was about to go onto the field, and the coordinator had a stoic confidence that his group would get a stop.

Eagles safety Reed Blankenship said Desai will sometimes crack a joke in a meeting or on the sideline to keep things light, which has been helpful with the inexperienced players working in.

“I like how he communicates with us,” Blankenship said. “It calms us down, it calms the young guys down. That’s what you want, because it can get stressful at times, but knowing your DC can bring a smile sometimes, it means a lot.”

The Eagles visit the Washington Commanders on Sunday. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from FedEx Field.